Artist Andy Bauch has rendered artworks made of images generated using real-time virtual wallet addresses. Feeding the string of address letters and numbers through an algorithm produced a series of patterns that Bauch has employed to generated Lego “paintings” that contain the wallet address for anyone to claim the funds in the form of bitcoin.

Every piece of art is a visual representation of a private cryptocurrency wallet key. In a show of art rewarding the buyer, anyone back-working the graphic representation can decipher the formula and thus the key to a stash of digital currency.

A Sign of Blockchain Impacting Artistic Endeavors
The artist began taking an interest in cryptocurrencies in 2013 but says he is not a “rabid promoter” of any particular coin nor the phenomenon itself. Bauch is rather a product of modern digital life distilling in the mind of the artist, producing aesthetically pleasing yet also digitized artworks.

His latest exhibition is being staged at Los Angeles’ Castelli Art Space. Titled “New Money,” the exhibition opened Friday, March 23, 2018. Saying that each individual art piece is “a secret key to various types of cryptocurrency,” Bauch is one of a handful of artists who have played around with cryptocurrency, secret messages, and graphics rendering.

In 2015, @coin_artist revealed a painting allegedly containing $50,000 worth of bitcoin for anyone who could decode the link to a wallet. Known as “The Mystery of Satoshi Nakamoto,” that puzzle remained unsolved until recently when on February 1, 2018, someone solved the riddle and drained the bitcoin wallet.

In spite of some doubt, the creators confirmed that they had not withdrawn the puzzle by sacking the wallet, but that an external user had actually solved the riddle and claimed the funds.Bauch’s Work Spans the Gap Between “New Tech and Humanity”
In preparation for his latest project, Bauch bought some bitcoin, litecoin and other virtual currencies and stashed them in wallets. He then fed the private encryption for each wallet into an algorithm that generated a variety of graphic images for each, from which Bauch chose the most pleasing.

Although he tweaked the process here and there in order to generate images that were both accurate in carrying the encoded information as well as appealing to his sense of aesthetics, he insists the code is decipherable and legitimate. Bauch tested and retested the reverse extrapolation to ensure that someone who figures out the code will be given correct information in the form of a wallet address to claim the contents.

Bauch said that a lot of his work is an attempt to “span this gap that often exists between new technology and humanity.” He enjoys using Lego as a medium as, for him, the final assembly is reminiscent of a highly magnified pixel deconstruction. Bauch is also employing the mass-produced blocks to create another series of portraits of people who have lost their jobs to technology.

The current artwork titles detail what type of digital coin the wallet that is rendered in the piece contains and also a period value of what the relevant currency was worth at the time he created the wallet. There will be a live feed of the market value of each wallet projected during the exhibition.

Art Meets the Digital World
Bauch and the “Satoshi Nakamoto Riddle” creators are not alone in their fascination with cryptocurrencies, although Bauch and others have perpetuated the original altruism and democracy imagined by the Bitcoin project. Another artist who responded to blockchain technology’s impact on the world was Brad Troemel. Probably most well-known for his collaboration with Tumblir that produced “Jogging,” he began including actual “Bitcoin pieces” that were shrink-wrapped into his works some years ago.

In Troemel’s case, the coins were emblazoned with the actual wallet keys and thus whoever bought the artwork immediately inherited the coin values as well. When interviewed about potential buyers of his works, Bauch said that he would “… give them a hint” to aid them in their quest to decipher the code and claim the currency. However, the codes have been cracked already, with a blog post from James Stanley explaining how he cracked the bitcoin keys in the Lego artwork.

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Weekly Forecast: Slow And Steady Increase Likely

There was a downside correction from the $10,954 swing high in bitcoin price against the US Dollar.

The price is holding the $10,000 support and it could bounce back in the near term.

There is a major bullish trend line forming with support near $10,140 on the 4-hours chart of the BTC/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).

The price could dip in the short term before it starts a fresh increase above $10,500 in the near term.

Bitcoin price is showing positive signs above $10,000 against the US Dollar. BTC could rise steadily as long as there is no close below the $10,000 support area.

Bitcoin Price Weekly Analysis (BTC)

In the last weekly forecast, we saw bitcoin price holding the key $10,000 support area against the US Dollar. The BTC/USD pair climbed higher and traded above the $10,000 resistance area. Moreover, there was a break above the $10,800 level and the 100 simple moving average (4-hours). However, the price failed to continue higher and topped below the $11,000 resistance.

A swing high was formed near $10,954 and recently the price started a fresh decline. It broke the key $10,500 support area and the 100 SMA. Moreover, the price spiked below the $10,000 support area. Finally, a swing low was formed near $9,903 and the price is currently correcting higher. It broke the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $10,954 high to $9,903 low.

However, the upward move is facing hurdles near the $10,400 and $10,500 levels. Additionally, the price is also struggling to climb above the 50% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $10,954 high to $9,903 low. If there is a break above the $10,450 and $10,500 levels, the price could continue to rise. The next key resistance is near the $10,800 level.

On the downside, there are many supports near the $10,100 and $10,000 levels. Additionally, there is a major bullish trend line forming with support near $10,140 on the 4-hours chart of the BTC/USD pair. If there is a downside break below the trend line and the $10,000 support, the price could resume its decline.

Looking at the chart, bitcoin price seems to be consolidating in a contracting range below the $10,500 resistance. It might soon break the $10,500 resistance and continue higher. Conversely, a downside break below $10,000 could start a strong decline in the coming sessions.

Technical indicators

4 hours MACD – The MACD for BTC/USD is slowly moving back into the bullish zone.

Bitcoin (BTC) price was consolidating $10,000 support on Aug. 23 after successfully shunning four figures during the day’s trading.

Market visualization. Source: Coin360

Bitcoin delivers firm bounce off $10K

Data from Coin360 show a newly strengthened Bitcoin managing to stay above the $10,000 marker, which it had crossed four times over the course of the week.

Currently in the upper end of a $300 trading corridor, BTC/USD circled $10,200 at press time, as analysts considered the opportunities ahead for fresh gains and less bearish volatility.

Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: Coin360

“The trend toward stability, an essential ingredient in a median of exchange, is accelerating Bitcoin’s advancement as a digital form of gold,” Bloomberg quoted its own Intelligence analyst, Mike McGlone, as saying on Thursday.

Sentiment had waned earlier after Bitcoin appeared to be heading broadly lower. Analysts voiced concern about support, arguing a further loss could trigger dives to as low as $7,000.

“In the short term, I’m a little bit cautious,” CNBC’s active Bitcoin bug Brian Kelly told the network on Friday. He added that at future lower levels, the buying opportunity for BTC accumulators was unparalleled.

Altcoins rally but Ether worries loom large

A Bitcoin breakdown was also still on cards for regular commentator Josh Rager, but for the short term, it was top altcoin Ether (ETH) which presented more worries.

Heading a troubled altcoin market, ETH had circled multi-year lows against BTC before rising above 0.019 on Thursday. For Rager, however, the general trend is down, and he advised not to buy under current conditions.

“If BTC breaks down to $8ks, ETH will follow with a break under $150,” he summarized in a fresh update.

There is a disproportionate percentage of $ZEC and $XRP pouring into the market. No wonder these tokens are the worst performers of 2019, down 25% and 30% in dollar terms, respectively, in a year $BTC is up 2.7x. pic.twitter.com/NsNqykkVvK

Bitcoin is up more than 170% since the start of the year while ZEC and XRP have moved over 25% in the opposite direction.

Together, XRP and ZEC are among some of the worst-performing cryptos of 2019. Altcoins, in general, have endured a miserable 2019, continuing the pains for bag holders from 2018’s bear market.

Meanwhile, commentators are calling a new all-time high (ATH) for bitcoin before the end of 2019. The emerging consensus is that the price action for the top-ranked crypto has entered another zone of parabolic advance.

Thus, a move for BTC towards its previous ATH would mean a further leg-up that could go as high as $30,000 in 2021.